I’m lucky, as teaching English allows me to teach international students from around the world. Two of my lady pupils are from South Korea which got me asking, what is their preferred dish from the region. They quoted kimchi, a base of napa cabbage spiced up in layers.
Widely used for the East Asian cuisine napa cabbage is a type of Chinese cabbage originating near the Beijing region of China. Kimchi is made by lacto-fermentation, the same process that creates sauerkraut and traditional dill pickles. In the first stage, the cabbage is soaked in a salty brine that kills off harmful bacteria. In the second stage, the remaining Lactobacillus bacteria (the good guys!) convert sugars into lactic acid, which preserves the vegetables and gives them that wonderful, tangy flavor. Of course, when I made mine, I hadn’t looked at the recipe, nor imagined it would be uncooked.
Mine consisted of a first-time purchase of a napa cabbage, known as ‘Acelga Japonesa’ at my local supermarket in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Instead, of checking out how to make it, impulsiveness led me to conjuring up my own concoction which in hindsight was my interpretation when one of the ladies mentioned its main ingredients, and had no resemblance to today’s research. How easy it is to make a conclusion from limited information!
I’m about to go and find out how the dish came out. It’s been sitting in a plastic container since removing from an hour, 180c long oven cook which was done, yesterday afternoon. I’ve just had mine which was pretty good, and health wise it possessed healthy ingredients as mainly napa cabbage, a few thinly sliced carrots, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, a tablespoon of caramelized pepper jelly, ½ kg thin slices of stewing steak and drops of extra virgin olive oil, but I forgot to use salt, so it tasted rather bland though fairly juicy.
Certainly, a far cry from South Korean Kimchi, but nevertheless, an impressive attempt to go on and make small adjustments to highlight this healthy dish.
Take Care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Soaked (adj) = saturated, sodden, water-logged, drenched, dripping wet
Brine (n) = saline, salt-water, saltwater, seawater
Tangy (adj) = tasty, spicy, piquant, pungent, sharp, flavorful, strong, (ant) bland
Concoction (n) = invention, creation, fabrication, mixture, brew, blend, potion, drink, potion
Hindsight (n) = perception after the fact, retrospection, reflection, perception, observation, (ant) foresight
Stewing steak (v) = Whereas, braising steak involves cooking large pieces of meat or chicken partially covered in liquid, stewing steak uses smaller pieces of meat totally immersed in liquid. The liquid will usually be a combination of stock and water.
Bland (adj) = insipid, weak, tasteless, mild, plain, flat, wishy-washy, tangy
A far cry from (idiom) = very different from
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